Distance hiked today: 22.8 miles / 36.7 km.
Today started with a walk through the forest, and we saw a wild sooty grouse all flared up to attract a mate right next to the trail. His tail feathers splayed out, he had his wings down low on his sides, and his neck feathers poofed out were a colorful orange and white underneath. He was making a strange whooshing noise, while walking around. I'd heard this noise before while walking and couldn't figure out what it was. It sounds like the wings of a big bird whooshing, but for a while I thought it was my backpack making noises because I'd never seen the grouse. But there he was, mystery solved, and there was indeed a female grouse there too that he was trying to swoon.
We crossed Selden Pass today at 10,913 ft, which had many small lakes as we ascended it, nice meadows, and of course a bit of snow.
Sitting on the edge of one of the lakes on the backside, lounging against a rock, we had lunch. Then the trail descended for a long ways down big rock steps, into the valley below even though we're going to go right back up tomorrow.
We passed a huge downed tree that had been cut where they fell over the trail - one of them was almost as thick as I am tall. I also found a robin's blue egg shell.
The last couple of miles were steep switchbacks down to a river, where there was a foot bridge and some tent sites. The river was strong and loud, water crashing against the rocks all night, drowning out any other noise.
Total trail mileage: 878.7 miles / 1413.8 km